Chapter 5: The Threat at the Gate

 

Lyra froze in Caelum’s lap, her blood turning to pure ice.

A Silver Detector squad.

Those elite squads carried heavy magi-tech devices that scanned for suppressed wolf signatures and unauthorized royal marks. If Silas’s men crossed the threshold of this room, they wouldn't just detect her rogue status—they would read her Sun-Marked bloodline in seconds.

"Caelum," Lyra whispered, her voice trembling. "They can't come in here. If they scan me—"

"They won't touch a single hair on your head," Caelum snapped, his dominant Alpha voice cutting through her panic like a blade.

He lifted her off his lap and set her feet gently on the floor. Caelum rose in one smooth and powerful movement. He stood above the bed with his huge seven-foot frame. Even with the silver poison burning through his veins and a blindfold across his eyes, he looked like an unstoppable god of war.

He pulled a thick, black silk robe over his broad, scarred chest and tied it tightly around his waist.

"Stay behind the bed curtain," Caelum commanded softly, turning his head toward her. "Do not speak. Do not make a sound. Let me handle my snake of an uncle."

Before Lyra could reply, the heavy titanium doors were blasted open with a deafening CRACK.

Five heavy-armored enforcers burst into the room, their weapons raised. Behind them walked Silas Vance—a tall, sharp-featured man with ruthless gray eyes, wearing a tailored suit lined with fur. At his side stood a young, beautiful she-wolf in an icy-blue silk gown: Lady Freya, daughter of the High Council Chairman.

Silas smirked, taking in the shattered windows and the dark, cold room.

"Look at you, nephew," Silas sneered, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Hiding in the dark like a wounded dog. The rumors were true—the dark silver has taken your sight and your mind."

Caelum didn't move an inch. He stood in the center of the room, broad shoulders squared, his posture radiating absolute, terrifying authority.

"You breach my private sanctuary, Silas?" Caelum growled, his voice gravelly, bouncing off the stone walls with such force as to make the armored enforcers flinch. "You have five seconds to state your business before I rip your head from your shoulders."

Lady Freya stepped forward, her heels clicking loudly on the marble floor. Her eyes swept over Caelum’s massive body with a mixture of disgust and dark ambition.

"We are here on authority from the High Council, Alpha Caelum," Freya said arrogantly. "You are incapacitated. You cannot see, you cannot lead, and you have failed to take a high-born mate. The Council has authorized Lord Silas to assume temporary leadership of the Obsidian Ridge Pack."

"Is that so?" Caelum chuckled dark, dangerous sound. "And on what grounds?"

"On the grounds that you are harboring an illegal rogue!" Silas snapped, waving his hand toward his squad. "Bring out the Silver Scanner! We received word that you smuggled an unregistered female physician into the citadel tonight!"

Lyra, crouching behind the heavy velvet drapes near the back of the room, held her breath. She pressed her hand over her mouth, her pulse hammering in her ears.

An enforcer stepped forward, holding a metallic, circular device that began to glow with a harsh, hum of purple light. The scanner began to sweep across the chamber, its needle ticking toward the bed drapes.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The scanner’s light turned from purple to a sharp, flashing red.

"She’s in here!" the enforcer yelled, pointing his silver-tipped rifle directly toward the velvet drapes where Lyra was hiding. "The scanner detected a suppressed rogue signature behind the bed!"

Silas grinned wickedly. "Seize her! Executing an unregistered rogue in the Alpha's quarters will prove Caelum’s unfitness to rule!"

Two heavy guards lunged toward the drapes.

"TOUCH HER AND YOU DIE!" Caelum roared.

In a fraction of a second, Caelum shifted. He didn't turn into a full wolf—he underwent a devastating half-shift. Massive, obsidian claws exploded from his knuckles, elongating into razor-sharp blades. Fangs tore through his gums, and a massive wave of black Alpha aura exploded from his body like a shockwave.

SWOOSH!

Caelum moved faster than human or wolf eyes could track.

He intercepted the first guard, his clawed hand clamping around the armored man's throat and slamming him violently into the stone floor, shattering the marble beneath his head. Before the second guard could raise his weapon, Caelum’s free hand shot out, ripping the silver rifle completely in half with his bare hands!

The remaining enforcers stumbled back in utter terror.

Caelum stood over the bleeding guard, his chest heaving, his dark Alpha aura choking the air in the room. He turned his blindfolded face toward Silas, his fangs dripping with dark saliva.

"This is my citadel," Caelum growled, his voice vibrating at a frequency that forced Silas and Lady Freya to their knees in instinctive submission. "This female is under my protection. If any of you take one step closer to her... I will paint these walls with your blood."

Silas gritted his teeth, struggling against the crushing weight of Caelum’s Alpha aura. "She is a rogue, Caelum! It is pack law!"

"She is not just a rogue!" Caelum roared, his gravelly voice booming through the mountain pass outside.

He turned toward the bed drapes, reaching out his large, blood-stained hand toward Lyra.

“She is my Luna,” Caelum announced, his words a death sentence to his enemies. "And anyone who touches the Queen of Obsidian Ridge dies tonight!"

Silas’s eyes widened in horror. Lady Freya gasped, her face twisting in pure rage.

Behind the curtain, Lyra’s heart stopped. Luna?

Before Silas could respond, the Silver Scanner on the floor—damaged during the fight—began to spark wildly. The red light shifted to a brilliant, blinding GOLD.

The machine let out a high-pitched, automated chime that echoed through the silent room:

"WARNING: HIGH-ROYAL BLOODLINE DETECTED. ANCESTRAL SUN-CREST MATCH FOUND."

Silas’s head snapped toward the drapes, his gray eyes bulging in shock. "What... what did that machine just say?!"